1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sizing of hierarchical computer resources. More particularly, the present invention relates to a sizing support system, method and program for supporting the sizing for hierarchical computer resources of 3 hierarchy levels or more.
2. Description of the Related Art
The prices of the information processors such as the personal computer, workstation and the like (hereafter, referred to as nodes), which has one or more CPUs, memories and communication devices, have been reduced recently. As a result, the cluster constructed by combining (or clustering) a plurality of nodes to operate as one system becomes popular. In the cluster, the nodes are connected to and communicate with each other. The cluster is excellent in the cost performance and in the scalability.
The excellent scalability results from the characteristic that the cluster is hierarchical computer resources. The hierarchical resources are constructed from the computer resources provided with a plurality of hierarchy levels, and a resource of higher level (the higher level resource) is constituted by the combination of the resources of lower hierarchy level (the low level resources). The performance of a high level resource can be enhanced by increasing the number of low level resources or improving the performance of low level resources. For example, by increasing the number of the nodes constituting a cluster or improving the performance of the node, the performance of the cluster is enhanced. Thus, a cluster is hierarchical resources, and the nodes constituting the cluster are also hierarchical resources. This is because the increase in the number of the CPUs constituting a node or the improvement of the performance of the CPU improves the performance of the nodes.
Also, hierarchical resources having a uniform configuration are called as uniform hierarchical resources. For example, a cluster provided with only the nodes of the same kind is uniform hierarchical resources. Each of the nodes of the same kind is composed of the CPUs of the same kind and the same number. The actually used clusters are in many cases the uniform hierarchical resources.
It is important to consider the type of the resources to be employed and to determine the configuration of the hierarchical construction before constructing or enhancing the hierarchical resources. That is, in order to attain the processing performance necessary for the system, it is important to consider the types of the resources to be employed and to determine the configuration of the resource hierarchy. Such a process is called as sizing. The system which cannot provide the sufficient processing performance cannot provide sufficient services to clients. Thus, it is very important to execute the sizing at a high precision.
Typically, the sizing plan is experientially made on the basis of the sense and experience of skilled technicians. The processing performance of the hierarchical resources constituted in accordance with the sizing plan is estimated and compared with the processing performance required for the system. If the processing performance does not agree with the requirement, the sizing planning is executed again.
It is required that a technique which makes it possible to quantitatively execute the sizing of the hierarchical resources independently from the experience of technicians before construction or enhancing the hierarchical system. In particular, in many cases, clusters are the uniform hierarchical resources. Thus, the technique which supports the quantitative execution of the sizing of the uniform hierarchical resources is desired.
As the conventional technique related to the control and performance estimation of the computer resources after a computer system is constructed, the following techniques are known.
In Japanese Laid Open Patent Application (JP-P 2003-223335A), a virtual stand-alone outsourcing system is described. According to the virtual stand-alone outsourcing system, the computer resources are divided into a plurality of partitions, and the respective partitions are used by clients. Also, correspondingly to the performance information for each partition, the configuration of the partition is dynamically changed.
In Japanese Laid Open Patent Application (JP-P 2004-288183A), a method for automatically allocating computing resources in a partition server is described. According to the method, priorities are set for partitions. In accordance with the priority, the competition between the resources (CPUs) is solved, and the resource amount assigned to the partition is determined.
In Japanese Laid Open Patent Application (JP-P 2004-302525A) a performance balance evaluating apparatus of a computer system is described. A performance estimation index obtaining means individually transmits and receives a test application to and from each apparatus constituting an estimation target computer system. Then, the performance estimation index obtaining means changes the number of the test applications and obtains a transaction density and a performance estimation index of each apparatus. A use rate obtaining means transmits the test application to the estimation target computer system and instructs each apparatus to process such as a usual service application and obtains a use rate of each apparatus. A capacity calculating means divides the performance estimation index of each apparatus by each use rate and calculates the capacity of each apparatus. A performance balance evaluating means defines any one of the apparatuses as a standard apparatus and calculates a performance balance from a ratio between the capacity of a different apparatus and the allowable amount of the standard apparatus.
In Japanese Laid Open Patent Application (JP-P 2000-29753A), a performance evaluating method of a system having a hierarchical resource competition is described. In the hierarchical resources, a layer of a software resource is a higher order layer, and a layer of a hardware resource is a lower order layer. At first, the hardware configuration of the lower order layer is inputted. Next, a transaction data of a transaction using the software resource of the higher order layer is inputted. Next, a process data of a process constituting the software resource is inputted. Next, the restriction condition of the process is inputted. Next, the setting which shows what type of a performance estimation value is displayed in what type of a format is carried out. Next, whether or not the given data is sufficient for calculating the performance estimation value is checked. If it is sufficient, the performance estimation value to be determined under the restriction condition of the process of the higher order layer is calculated. Finally, a displaying means indicates those performance estimation values to a user.
In Japanese Laid Open Patent Application (JP-P 2004-78947A, having a counterpart U.S. Pat. No. 7,389,435), a method for satisfying the demanded capacity in a blade-based computer system is described. In the blade-based computer system, the number of loaded blades in the system is determined. Next, an optimal performance configuration for each of the individual blades is determined. The optimal performance configuration is based at least in part on the number of the blades loaded in the chassis and the overall thermal and power envelope. Then an individual frequency for at least one of the individual blades is set creating a more efficiently run system.
In Japanese Laid Open Patent Application (JP-P 2006-331135A, a performance prediction apparatus of a cluster system is described. The cluster system has nodes which share the data in a main storage device. The performance prediction apparatus calculates the frequency of block copy between the nodes, by which the data is copied by the unit of the memory block of the storage device per unit time. The clustering overhead occurred in the cluster system is calculated based on the frequency of the block copy and the information of the CPU load per block copy.
In a textbook (Kameda, H. (1998) The Elements and Applications of Performance Assessment, ISBN: 9784320026650, KYORITSU SHUPPAN CO., LTD. 28-30 (in Japanese)), the queuing theory for performance analysis is described.